What each ingredient is and what it does in our formulas. The full ingredient list for every product is on its product page, and natural and naturally derived ingredients can still cause sensitivities. This page covers products made by Willow & Watch; products from other brands we carry list their own ingredients.
We're particular about what goes in. When a supplier runs short or a delivery doesn't meet our standards, we switch to another source that does rather than compromise, so a few ingredients may come from different suppliers from batch to batch. The standard stays the same.
Tallow and lanolin
Grass-fed tallow
The base of most of what we make — deodorant, lip balm, balms, whipped tallow, scrub and soap. It gives body, glide and staying power, and in soap it makes a hard, long-lasting bar with a creamy lather. It is also a byproduct of raising cattle for meat, and we would rather render it than see it discarded. Every tallow we use is grass-fed.
Our soaps are made with locally sourced tallow. We render it ourselves, in small batches, from beef fat from a local Texas ranch. Raised in Texas, rendered with intention. Our other products use grass-fed tallow from a supplier we trust.
Lanolin
A wax from sheep's wool. It adds cushion to our lip balm and Intensive Tallow Balm and a conditioning feel to our soap. If you're sensitive to wool or lanolin, choose products without it.
Waxes and butters
Beeswax
Structure. It lets a balm hold its shape as a stick or in a tube.
Shea butter
Softness and glide, in our deodorant, lip balm and several balms. Shea comes from the shea nut. Ours is organic.
Cocoa butter
Firmness and body. It keeps the lip balm soft in the tube without turning soupy, and helps our lotion bar melt at skin temperature.
Starting with batches made in November 2026, our cocoa butter is certified organic and Fair Trade, and unrefined, so it keeps a light, natural cocoa scent. Every lot arrives with its own certificate of analysis, which we keep on file. We made the switch after a delivery from a previous supplier didn't meet our standards. Products made before then use conventional cocoa butter, and their product pages say so.
Mango butter
Softness and slip in our lotion bar and Daily Dots. It comes from the mango seed.
Oils
Jojoba oil
Technically a liquid wax. It adds slip and absorbs quickly. Ours is organic.
Castor oil
Thick and clinging. It adds gloss to the lip balm and steadies the lather in our soap. Ours is organic.
Coconut oil
In our deodorant it softens the melt so the stick glides. In our soap it adds bubbles, and in our kitchen soap puck it is the main oil because it cuts grease. Ours is organic.
Olive oil and calendula-infused oil
Olive oil adds mildness to our soap. For some products we steep dried calendula flowers in olive oil in house, which is why olive oil and calendula extract both appear on those labels. Starting with November 2026 batches, our olive oil is organic extra virgin.
High-oleic sunflower oil
Carries our vitamin E and appears in our scrub. We use the high-oleic grade because it resists going rancid better than standard sunflower oil. Starting with November 2026 batches, it is organic.
Mineral and functional ingredients
Magnesium hydroxide
The deodorant's main odor-control ingredient, used in place of baking soda.
Zinc ricinoleate
Derived from castor oil. It helps trap odor molecules rather than covering them up.
Kaolin clay and arrowroot starch
Both absorb moisture in the deodorant. Kaolin adds slip; arrowroot gives a drier feel.
Cetyl alcohol
A waxy fatty alcohol, not a drying alcohol. A small amount helps our lotion bar and Daily Dots soften at skin temperature and glide.
Epsom salt and magnesium chloride
The minerals in our bath soak. Tapioca starch carries the soak's essential oils so they disperse in the water instead of floating on top.
Cane sugar
The exfoliant in our sugar scrub.
Vitamin E (tocopherol)
An antioxidant that slows the oxidation of the fats in a formula.
How our soap is made
Soap can only be made with lye (sodium hydroxide). In hot-process soapmaking, the lye reacts completely with the oils in the pot, turning them into soap and glycerin — which is why our soap labels list ingredients such as sodium tallowate and sodium olivate rather than lye. Each batch is then air-dried until firm. Some bars include colloidal oatmeal or stout beer, and our kitchen puck includes a little citric acid to help in hard water.
Essential oils
Each scent blend is weighed as its own concentrate and added at a low, set level for each product type:
- Deodorant: 1.25%, or none in Bare (Unscented).
- Sugar scrub, lotion bar, Daily Dots and kitchen puck: 1%, or none in Bare (Unscented).
- Bar soap: 2.5% of the oils, or none in Bare (Unscented).
- Bath soak: about 0.1%.
- Lip balm: 0.5% peppermint oil in the peppermint balm.
- Balm stick, face tallow and Intensive Tallow Balm: none.
Every blend and its oils are listed on Our Scents.
Water and preservatives
Our balms, deodorant, lip balm, lotion bar, Daily Dots, whipped tallow and scrub contain no water, so they don't need a preservative and don't contain one. Keep water out of the container to keep them that way. Soap is naturally inhospitable to microbes and doesn't need an added preservative. If we ever release a leave-on product that contains water, it will include a broad-spectrum preservative, and we'll say so here.
What we don't use
Products made by Willow & Watch don't contain aluminum, baking soda, fragrance oils or synthetic musks, mineral oil or petroleum-based waxes, silicones, PEGs, parabens or phthalates.